[Ynet] Authorities intercepted a threatening letter addressed to US President Barack Obama Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back... that was similar to ones sent to New York Mayor Michael Nanny Bloomberg, the Secret Service said on Thursday.
Letters sent to Bloomberg and his gun control group contained material believed to be the deadly poison ricin and contained a reference to gun control, New York police said on Wednesday. A Secret Service official said the White House letter was similar but did not elaborate.
[An Nahar] Fed up with people ridiculing its name, Bland Shire in Australia wants to cash in on it by hooking up with Dull in Scotland and the American town of Boring.
Long considered a dreary destination due to its name, Bland's tourism committee is exploring promoting the area by establishing sister relationships with other towns with odd names.
Dull and Boring have already joined forces to draw in tourists.
"I think over the years we've had our share of fun poked at us," Bland Shire councilor Tony Lord told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, adding that having a joke about the name could bring benefits.
"Wherever there's a deemed threat or a deemed negative, there's always an opportunity.
"I think that's where we need to think positively and look ahead at all the opportunities that may occur or that we can generate."
Bland Shire, in central New South Wales state, is home to more than 6,000 people. Its name honors William Bland, founder of the Australian Medical Association.
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05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] Two former students from Pakistain are believed to have become the first Moslem lesbian couple to marry in a civil ceremony in Britannia.
Rehana Kausar, 34, and Sobia Kamar, 29, took their vows at a registry office in Leeds earlier this month before immediately applying for political asylum, it was claimed.
Relatives of the couple said the women, who studied in Birmingham, had received death threats both in the UK and from opponents in their native Pakistain, where homosexual relations are illegal.
During the ceremony the couple reportedly told the registrar that they had met three years ago while studying business and health care management at Birmingham, having travelled to the country on student visas, and had been living together in South Yorkshire for about a year.
Ms Kausar, originally from Lahore, also holds a master's degree in economics from Punjab University.
"This country allows us rights and it's a very personal decision that we have taken. It's no one's business as to what we do with our personal lives," she was quoted as telling the Birmingham-based Sunday Mercury newspaper.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Wonder if any insurer would be willing to sell them life-insurance.
[Dawn] The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has declared that DNA test is not acceptable as primary evidence in cases of rape, but it could be used as a supporting evidence for confirmation of the crime.
A meeting of the CII, presided over by its chairman Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani on Wednesday, also maintained that there was nothing wrong with the blasphemy law and it didn't need amendment.
The meeting was of the view that Islam has set procedures to determine cases of rape and said Islamic procedure should be adopted during investigation.
It declared human cloning illegal because it is against Islam.
The CII directed the Higher Education Commission and other institutions to correct English translation of 'Allah', 'Rasool' and 'Masjid'.
It said the usage of 'Holy Book' and 'Holy Place' was illegal.
The meeting expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... over changes made in the syllabus of Islamic Studies, especially in Punjab, and instructed the provincial government to include the deleted chapters/essays from the curriculum.
It instructed the Director General, Research, Mohammad Ilyas Khan who is also CII secretary, to send letters to all provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan asking them to ensure Islamic education in their syllabus.
The meeting ordered the authorities to look into the books being taught in educational institutions and rectify errors.
The council suggested dialogue to resolve the issue of 'Ruet-e-Hilal' (sighting of moon) due to which every year a dispute arises between religious scholars of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and other provinces.
Maulana Mufti Ghulam Mustafa Rizvi, retired Justice Nazir Akhtar, retired Justice Mushtaq Ahmed, Dr Mohammad Idrees Soomro, Allama Iftikhar Hussain Naqvi, Saeed Ahmed Shah Gujrati, Maulana Hanif Jalandhari and others attended the meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Boy their version of 'CSI: Punjab' must be interesting!
[Dawn] Speakers at a seminar on 'Rights of women and complaints redressal mechanism' on Wednesday underscored the need for sensitizing communities regarding rights of women who, they said, were still considered vulnerable section of society.
Addressing the seminar and workshop organised in a local hotel by the regional ombudsman office, they supported women's empowerment and their participation in decision-making for development of society.
Speakers included Sindh Ombudsman Asad Ashraf Malik, Sindh ombudsman's secretariat secretary Mohammad Saleh Farooqui, media house owner Ghulam Nabi Morai, women's rights activist Amar Sindhu, Waheeda Mahesar and Rafiq Chandio from Szabist, Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) Hyderabad president Nisar Durrani and Akram Saeed.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Extracting the Mediterranean Sea's water could provide Israel with an unquenchable supply of the resource it lacks
Set to begin operating as soon as next month, Israel Desalination Enterprises' Sorek Desalination Plant will provide up to 26,000 cubic meters -- or nearly 7 million gallons -- of potable water to Israelis every hour. When it's at full capacity, it will be the largest desalination plant of its kind in the world.
#1
Now if they can drain the Med into the Dead (sea), they can have power and a whole bunch more potable water, annnnnnnddd they can raise the level of the Dead (sea) to a normal level, like it should be.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/31/2013 0:16 Comments ||
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#2
7M3/hr seems a little high if the projected annual production is only 150m3, from 2 plants at the facility.
I've thought the same thing about the Gulf of Mexico and Death Valley, AP. Three hundred feet of absolute drop can create enormous hydropower.
#6
I've thought the same thing about the Gulf of Mexico and Death Valley, AP.
I think you mean the Gulf of California, Skid. And something like it happened in 1905, when a poorly-engineered project on the lower Colorado accidentally diverted the whole flow into the then-Salton Sink, which is today the slowly dying "Salton Sea".
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/31/2013 15:16 Comments ||
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#7
desalinization technology has improved by about a factor of 10 in the past decade in terms of efficiency
tunneling technology, which would be the basis of any Med to Dead or Red to Dead sea system has hardly improved at all during that time
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/31/2013 16:42 Comments ||
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#8
1905: Sudden water over San Andreas fault
1906: 7.8 earthquake...
[An Nahar] Indonesian mosques have been ordered to cut down on their use of loudspeakers, an Islamic group said Wednesday, a move that may provide some relief to millions who live near the places of worship.
There are some 800,000 mosques in Indonesia, which has the world's biggest Mohammedan population, and many use speakers to blast out the call to prayer as well as fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... Koranic verses, often at high volumes in the early hours.
But now the Indonesian Mosques Council has asked the places of worship to restrict the use of loudspeakers following years of complaints by weary residents.
"We must not force something that we believe is good on others who may see it as a disturbance," said Masdar Masudi, deputy head of the council that groups many of the country's mosques.
"Even Mohammedans, such as those who are ill or have insomnia, will definitely get annoyed at the noise."
Loudspeakers that face into surrounding neighborhoods should broadcast only the call to prayer, which is often relatively quiet and short, said Masudi.
If there are several mosques in the same area, only one should broadcast the call, he said.
For longer and louder readings, speakers can still be used, but they must face into the grounds of the mosque, he said.
Mosques become particularly noisy during the holy month of Ramadan, when Mohammedans forgo food, drink and sex between dawn and dusk and the loudspeakers blare out Koranic verses almost constantly.
Previous attempts to get mosques to lower their volume have met with extreme opposition.
An elderly Indonesian was forced earlier this year to withdraw a legal action against a noisy mosque in the city of Banda Aceh on Sumatra island after an angry mob threatened to kill him.
Nevertheless, he ended up winning a rare victory -- the mosque in question turned down the volume significantly after the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Yeah, the mosques are going to switch to the mobile system, kind of like pirate radio but in trucks and roll around the neighborhoods instead.
[Al Ahram] Iran has amended its internationally condemned law on stoning convicted adulterers to death to allow judges to impose a different form of execution, according to the revision seen by AFP on Thursday.
The controversial practice, in which stones are thrown at the partially buried offender, has provoked outcries from human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... organizations, international bodies and Western countries urging Iran to abandon it.
An article of Iran's Islamic new penal code, published earlier this week, states that, "if the possibility of carrying out the (stoning) verdict does not exist," the sentencing judge may order another form of execution pending final approval by the judiciary chief.
The article does not explain what is meant by the possibility of stoning not existing.
Mina Ahadi of the rights group International Committee Against Stoning told AFP the revision proved "international pressure and condemnations" had been effective.
She condemned the revised article as "still being medieval and barbaric," adding that "we believe stoning should be omitted and no other punishment should replace it."
Under Iran's interpretation of Islamic Sharia law in force since its 1979 revolution, adultery is punished by the stoning of convicted adulterers.
Women are buried up to their shoulders, but men only up to their waists. They are spared if they manage to free themselves before dying.
Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking are also punishable by death in Iran, which has one of the highest annual execution counts in the world, alongside China, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and the United States.
In Iran, executions are normally carried out by hanging.
According to Ahadi's group, at least 150 people may have been stoned in Iran since 1980. She said that 12 offenders in Iranian prisons are now facing stoning sentences.
According to local media, MPs had removed stoning altogether from the bill that they adopted. But the hardline Guardians Council of holy mans and jurists, which must approve all legislation before it enters into force, reinserted it, with the new amendment.
Stoning was removed, as it is enshrined in Sharia law, the front man for the parliament's judiciary committee, Mohammad Ali Esfandiari, said in April.
The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... has urged Iran to ditch stoning as a method of execution, with its experts saying last year that adultery does not constitute a serious crime by international standards.
World criticism reached a strident pitch in 2011 when reports said a married woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was about to be stoned over "illicit relationship" with two men.
Iran halted the stoning, but Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced in 2006, is serving a 10-year sentence on separate charges of complicity in the murder of her husband in a lovers' spat.
Her stoning could still be carried out. In December 2011, a local judicial official said that judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani had decided "to wait to get the view of other religious scholars" before making a final decision.
The last reported case of stoning was in 2009, when an unidentified man was stoned to death in the northern city of Rasht.
That came despite a directive in 2002 by then judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi to suspend the practice. His call failed to force any changes to the penal code.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/31/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Jesus happened upon a crowd that was preparing to stone an adulterous woman, so He made His now-famous proclamation, "Let the person who has no sin cast the first stone."
The crowd went silent, then all of a sudden a rock whips out from the back of the crowd and beans the woman.
Jesus turned and gave an exasperated look at the part of the crowd where the stone had come from and said "Mom! I really hate it when you do that."
Heh.
Oh.
OK TW, Ima go back to my room I know I'll pay for this in confession this Saturday
#4
OS,
I suspect you and I are both still grandfathered in on the tender mercies of the "Pergatory" plan.
You won't be able to get it off your record this Saturday, just have to ride the pine longer in the waiting room.
h/t Instapundit
By May 1806, Charles Dickinson had published an attack on [Andrew] Jackson in the local newspaper, and it resulted in a written challenge from Jackson to a duel. Since Dickinson was considered an expert shot, Jackson determined it would be best to let Dickinson turn and fire first, hoping that his aim might be spoiled in his quickness; Jackson would wait and take careful aim at Dickinson. Dickinson did fire first, hitting Jackson in the chest. Under the rules of dueling, Dickinson had to remain still as Jackson took aim and shot and killed him. However, the bullet that struck Jackson was so close to his heart that it could never be safely removed. Jackson's behavior in the in the dual outraged men of honor in Tennessee, who called it a brutal, cold-blooded killing and saddled Jackson with a reputation as a fearful, violent, vengeful man. He became a social outcast.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Michael 
[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] Two former students from Pakistain are believed to have become the first 
[Dawn] The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has declared that DNA test is not acceptable as primary evidence in cases of rape, but it could be used as a supporting evidence for confirmation of the crime.
[Al Ahram] Iran has amended its internationally condemned law on stoning convicted adulterers to death to allow judges to impose a different form of execution, according to the revision seen by AFP on Thursday.
